---

Personal Income

Answer

The information requested falls within the responsibility of the National Statistician, who has been asked to reply.Letter from Karen Dunnell, dated 19 March 2007:"As National Statistician, I have been asked to reply to your recent question asking what the (a) mean and (b) median age is of the household reference person in each household income decile. (127327).""The ONS analysis 'The effects of taxes and benefits on household income' provides information about the income distribution and the characteristics of households in different parts of the income distribution. The latest analysis for 2004/05 was published on the National Statistics website on 12th May 2006 at http://www.statistics.gov.uk/taxesbenefits, while that for 2005/06 will be published on 17 May 2007. This annual analysis is based on data from the Expenditure and Food Survey, which is a sample survey covering approximately 7,000 households in the UK. Tables 15 and 15A provide information on household characteristics by income decile group.""The table below, based on the same underlying data as that appearing in Tables 15 and 15A, shows the mean and median age of the household reference person by household income decile.""The household reference person is the person in the household who owns the accommodation or is responsible for paying rent. If this ownership or responsibility for paying rent is held jointly, then the household reference person is the person with the highest income. A fuller definition is provided in the background notes.""The income decile groups are determined by ranking households according to their equivalised disposable income. The table below also shows the equivalised income boundary points which separate households into decile groups.""Equivalised incomes are standardised to take into account different sizes and compositions of households. The standard household is deemed to be a two adult household with no children, and so these equivalised incomes can be interpreted as indicating a standard of living that would be achieved by a standard household with that income.""The figures shown in the table below are based on a sample survey and are not necessarily accurate to the nearest single year of age, but nevertheless provide a good indication of how the age of the household reference person changes across the income distribution."

Mean and median age of household reference person by decile groups of ALL households, 2004-05
	Decile groups of all households ranked by equivalised disposable income
	Bottom	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	Top	All households
Decile boundary points (equivalised)		9,892	12,530	14,691	16,948	19,309	22,287	25,811	30,832	40,385
Number of households in the population (000s)	2,440	2,446	2,440	2,445	2,443	2,444	2,443	2,440	2,447	2,444	24,431
Mean age of household reference person	55	55	58	56	53	51	50	48	45	46	52
Median age of household reference person	57	57	60	57	51	50	49	48	45	45	52
Source: ONS, Effects of taxes and benefits on household income, 2004-05.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

458 c711-2W; 127327

Session

2006-07

Subjects

Personal income

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk